Why Bottas's defeat was more than just a bad start

Valtteri Bottas looked unstoppable heading into the Spanish Grand Prix race day, but ended up defeated. Though he put it down to a mischievous clutch and bad start, there was more to it than that

This was Valtteri Bottas's weekend, or so it seemed. From the start of practice until the moment the lights went out for the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, he was the faster Mercedes driver and had illustrious team-mate Lewis Hamilton emphatically covered.

Then, in a reverse of the start of the Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton made the better getaway from second on the grid and led all but the first 400 metres of the race to seal a remarkable fifth consecutive one-two finish for Mercedes.